Attachment for paring-knives



C. M. BREHM.

ATTACHMENT FOR PA RING KNIVES. APPLICATION rum JAN-22. 1917.

1,333,960. Patented Mar. 16,1920.

CHARLIE M. BREI-HVLOF DAYTON, onro.

ATTACHMENT FOR PARING-KNIVES.

Specification of Letters Patent. Patented'Mar. 16, 1920- Application filed January 22, 1917. Serial No. 143,663.

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, CHARLIE M. BREHM, a citizen of the United States, residing at Dayton, in the county of Montgomery and State of Ohio, have invented anew and useful Attachment for Faring-Knives, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to the class of devices which are adapted to be attached to the blade of an ordinary paring knife to act as a guide or gage in peeling or slicing fruit and vegetables. Devices of this kind are not new and there have been a number of more or less successful ones put upon the market. The prime object of my invention is to produce a device of the kind which will be more perfect in its operation and produce better results than those so far producedpalso to overcome certain common defects which mitigate against the durability of such devices. Another object is to obtain the above mentioned and other results with a comparatively inexpensive material; also to so treat the metal as toretain certain valuable characteristics which inhere from the process of its manufacture.

In the accompanying drawing, Figure 1 is aperspective View of my attachment, Fig. 2 is a transverse section of the attachment in place on a blade, and Fig. 3 is a section on line 33, Fig. 2, of the attachment.

The attachment comprises a body portion 10 from one side of which extend four fingers 11, two of the fingers being at each end of the body, with a short section of the body, indicated at 12, separating them. These sections are folded so as to bring the outside finger into position opposite the adjacent finger.

In order to make clear certain objects in the construction of my attachment, an explanation of certain characteristics ofrolled metal is necessary. Devices of this kind are usually and preferably made of sheet metal which has been rolled cold, such metal being commonly called cold rolled. Cold rolling condenses and hardens the metal and increases its rigidity very considerably, especially near its surface. The crystals of the metal are elongated by the rolls in the direction of its passage through the rolls. This endows the metal with great resiliency, which endures unless it is subjected to excessive strain, such as bending it. Bending the metal disintegrates the crystalline struc- .to the knife edge.

ture to a greater or less extent; 2'. 6., it fractures the cleavage planes between the crystals and thus destroys its resiliency. Because of the elongation of its crystals the metal has greater resiliency lengthwise; i. 6., in the direction in which it passed between the rolls, than crosswise. For this reason I prefer to cut the metal so that the crystals lie lengthwise of the fingers, and by making the bends 12 on varying radii; that is, making the portion of the bend adjacent the fingers on a smaller radius than the portion farthest from the fingers, the ends of the fingers may be made to press against each other with sufficient force to firmly grip the knife blade. Itis to be noted that the axis of the bend 12 is perpendicular to the cutting edge of the knife blade, and that the fingers 11 are as close as possible to the bend. In fact, a strai ht edge laid across the edges of a pair of fingers would practically he on the axis of the bend. For this reason a strain tending to separate the ends of the fingers might be described as tangential instead of arcual with reference to the axis of the bend. In other words, instead of tending to swing the fingers in a circular path around the axis of the bend, as would be the case were the bend formed with its axis parallel to the knife edge, insertion of the knife between the fingers, tends to broaden the portion of the bend adjacent to the roots of the fingers and to narrow the portion of the bend farthest removed from the fingers, these opposing tendencies gradually diminishing and becoming m'l at what may be called a neutral zone. So situated the bends 12 have a very much greater capacity for resisting the normal strains on the fingers than bends of even much greater axial length could possibly have arranged with their axes parallel Furthermore, the perpendicular bends render innocuous the injury to the metal which results from bending it- By avoiding a bend at the point where the finger unites to the body all of the resiliency is retained. In order to increase their rigidity, the fingers be curved slightly in cross section as shown in Fig. 3, which would not affect the lengthwise resiliency of the metal as a. bend in the other direction would.

The inner edges of the sections 12 are 2. This tends to force the cutting edge of the knife away from the body 10 so as to maintain a predetermined distance between the cutting edge and the adjacent edge of the body. The parts are so proportioned that this space is equal to the thickness of 1 claims appended hereto.

.W hat I claim is as follows:

1. An attachment for a paring knife, comprising a body portion having four flat and comparatively thin fingers extending laterally from one side thereof, two of said fingers being at each endv of the body portion and connected by a comparatively short section of the body, each of said connecting sections being folded so as to bring the broad side of the finger it carries into a position opposite the broad side of the adjacent finger and adapted to receive and clamp the blade of a knife between them.

An attachment for a, paring knife, comprising a body portion having four flat and comparatively thin fingers extending laterally from one side thereof, two of said fingers being at each end of the body portion and connected by a comparatively short section-of the body, each of said connecting sections being folded so as to bring the broad side of the finger it carries into a position opposite the broad side of the adjacent finger and adapted to receive and clamp the blade of a knife between them, said fingers having longitudinal bends,

whereby they are curvedin cross-section so as to impart rigidity to them.

3. An attachment for a paring knife, comprising a. pair of resilient fingers formed integral with a connecting nember which is bent-into a substantially semi-circular form on an aXis substantially parallel to the fingers, and a gage bar supported by said fingers and held thereby in a desired position relative to a knife blade inserted between the fingers.

4. An attachment for a aring knife, comprising a pair of resilient ngers formed integral With a connecting member which is bent into a substantially semi-circular form on an axis substantially parallel to the fingers, the edge of said connecting member which joins the roots of the fingers being inclined with reference to the edges of the fingers, so that after said member is bent a knife blade inserted between the fingers will impinge on said inclined edge and be directed thereby toward one finger and away from the other. V

. CHARLIE M. BREHM. 

